‘The night you were born,’ he said, ignoring my question, ‘there was a rare lunar eclipse. The planets were aligned.’ He lifted a webbed foot and waved it in the air as if the planets were hovering in front of him. ‘When the eclipse passed,’ he continued, ‘the first ray of moonlight hit your newborn eyes and a cosmic does of planetary magic passed to you.’
Darcy Moon has a few problems – the biggest ones being her embarrassing parents, whose funny smells and hairy armpits are stopping her fitting in with the cool crowd.So when the animals at the local swamp start speaking to her, she doesn’t want to know. She can’t help them – and if anyone knows she talks to frogs, she’ll become a laughing stock. But Jumpy the frog and Wizen, the Western Swamp Tortoise, are pretty persistent, and when Darcy realises why the local frogs are disappearing she realises she has to help.
Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs is a fun adventure with an important message about ecology and the environment. Darcy is a gutsy girl who must use her nous to help the animals, and get out of some scrapes, which she does with aplomb.
Suitable for primary school aged children, Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs is a great début novel from West Aussie Catherine Carvell.
Darcy Moon and the Deep-fried Frogs, by Catherine Carvell
Fremantle Press, 2014
ISBN 9781922089717
Available from good bookstores and online.